Sunday, October 20, 2019
Mount Moriac trainer Kevin Ward was quietly confident Tyche Onyx could win her first 600 metre race after drawing box one in last Thursday’s Gambier Vets Mixed Stake at Tara Raceway’s time-graded meeting.
And he was on the money, the black bitch leading all the way for a big 7½ lengths win in a more than handy 35.23 seconds, Ward later saying that he believed a 2¼ length second behind Bush Blossom over 512 metres at her previous start had topped her off nicely for the middle-distance event.
“I’m her sixth trainer so she had done the rounds prior to me picking her up as a giveaway back in May,” he said. “Initially there had been a bit of a hock issue with her so I’d kept her to 400 metre racing before stepping her up to 512 metres last week.
“She worked home well in that race so I thought the time was probably right to step her up to 600 metres. It wasn’t as though she’d never been over the journey before because she had been placed at Sandown Park and Angle Park before I took her over.”
Ward said he wasn’t sure where Tyche Onyx would next run although he was seriously thinking of trying to get her back in another 600 metre event at Tara Raceway before tackling a middle-distance event in the city.
She is by Bekim Bale out of Paua To Excite, who traces back to Paua To Burn, a winner of 59 races and $242,000 in stakemoney.
Tyche Onyx is also a litter sister to the smart chaser Got Some Wheels, successful over 525 metres at The Meadows at the end of August in a quick 29.65 seconds and all told a winner of 15 races and $68,000 in stakemoney.
Little wonder that Ward now has his seven-race winner registered for breeding.
Like A Slug scored a shock win in the first race, the JB Irrigation Maiden Stake (400 m), for Ecklin South trainer Peter Fulton and his mother Beryl, the pair also breeding the fawn son of Worm Burner and Miss Hodge.
Long odds to open his winning account after his first four race starts had resulted in well-beaten unplaced runs, Like A Slug delighted Fulton when he chased Zeenat until the home turn where he unleashed a powerful run, going right away to a 4¼ lengths win in 23.44 seconds.
“He needs room and a clear run,” he said. “And he hadn’t been able to get that at his first four runs. But he showed today that if things go his way then he can run a bit. The win was our first with the litter and I was certainly very happy with the effort.”
The winner is a litter brother to General Max, a winner of four races at Tara Raceway for the locally-based Fennell family who also race his brother Beat Max Bazza, placed on seven occasions from 12 starts at the local track.
Miss Hodge, who was retired due to injury after only three starts, is by Cape Hawke x Jamaican Ruby and a litter sister to I’m A Princess, a winner of eight races and $32,000 in stakemoney.
The Fultons are currently being kept busy with Miss Hodge’s 9-month-old second litter of five dogs and seven bitches which are by Rippin’ Sam (15, $357,000).
Widely-travelled veteran trainer Garry Harding, at Tara Raceway for only the third time, landed his first winner at the track when Tiggerlong Ring led all the way to defeat Yeppy Allen by 3½ lengths in 23.66 seconds in the final event, the Winningformula.net.au Stake (400 m).
These days he’s based at Laharum, down the road from Horsham, where he is helping out his cousin Jeff Guy with some of his young greyhounds. But his interest in the sport goes back to a time when 10 tracks were operating in SA, including Port Lincoln, where he was living.
A rising five-year-old, Tiggerlong Ring is by Kinloch Brae out of Wentworth Park winner Tiggerlong Petal, Harding picking up the black dog 10 months ago for $500 and having now also won at Goulburn with him.
Charlton trainer Kevin Ashton resurrected yet another giveaway with Brave Hearted who went into last Thursday’s Fairthorne Forestry Stake (400 m) with one win from 42 starts at what was only his second start in five months when lining up from box seven.
Using plenty of the track, the son of Made To Size and Puzzle Magic was mid-race early but finished strongly down the outside in the home straight to defeat his 5¾-year-old kennelmate Mr Agro by a neck in 24.20 seconds and break a 13-month losing streak.
Ashton, who picked up Brave Hearted back in July, said he was surprised that the dog had been able to win over 400 metres and give him his 21st win at the local track this year.
“I’d studied some of his previous runs over a bit more ground and liked the way he had finished his races off. To be honest, I thought that he would probably need to be racing over 512 metres at Tara Raceway before being any chance.”